On the Cover

November-December 2009
Volume 97, Number 6

Found in caves and wooded canyons of the Sierra Nevada in California, ...

FEATURE ARTICLES

Spitzer’s Cold Look at Space

Michael Werner

The infrared spectrum reveals much about planets, stars and galaxies

Harvestmen *

William Shear

Opiliones, including daddy-long-legs, are as exotic as they are familiar

The Other Climate Threat: Transportation *

Andreas Schäfer, Henry D. Jacoby, John B. Heywood, Ian A. Waitz

Increased global travel is inevitable, but growth in CO₂ output is not

Going with the Floe? *

Stephanie Pfirman, Bruno Tremblay, Charles Fowler

Did luck or skill favor the Nansen and Shackleton polar expeditions?

* access restricted to members and subscribers

SCIENTISTS’ BOOKSHELF

A review of Critical Transitions in Nature and Society, by Marten Scheffer. Like canoes, natural systems have tipping points, argues Scheffer; once a hard-to-recognize threshold is exceeded, runaway change can occur that is difficult to reverse—a relatively wet area can turn to desert, a heavily wooded area can become a savanna. Could the integrated study of complex systems give us the insight to predict and control such shifts?

See all book reviews for this issue

DEPARTMENTS

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Hip-Hop Physics

Electrons dance to a quantum beat in the Hubbard model of solid-state physics

Brian Hayes

ENGINEERING

The Minneapolis Bridge*

A replacement for a fallen structure rises to the occasion in less than a year

Henry Petroski

MARGINALIA

Abstract Science?

Abstraction, not just mathematics, has its place in science as it does in art

Roald Hoffmann

SIGHTINGS

Envisioning Cosmic Collisions

Computer simulations of merging galaxies

Catherine Clabby

SCIENCE OBSERVER

Don't Fence Me Out

To protect wildlife, barriers to information flow between science and policy will have to be made more permeable

Anna Lena Phillips

Multitasking to Distraction

Users of many concurrent media streams actually are less able to switch between tasks

Fenella Saunders

In the News

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Be Real About Biofuels

Our Flexible Age

Statistical or Actual Significance?

SIGMA XI TODAY (PDF)

2009 Year-End Index

Science in the News

Water: Toxic, Spicy, Chaotic, and Saturated

Wells all over Bangladesh tap into shallow aquifers with high concentrations of arsenic. Now researchers report that they may have identified a primary source of this contamination: manmade ponds near houses used for raising fish and bathing. ...

posted on 11/23/2009

Ancient Reptiles in the Sahara

Paleontologists have found some strange crocodile cousins beneath the sands of the Sahara in present-day Niger and Morocco. The creatures roamed during the Cretaceous period on the landmass Gondwana before it broke up into the southern continents. ...

posted on 11/23/2009

Space: Habitability and the Search for Life

The Viking mission to Mars was ambiguous when it came to determining the existence of life on the planet. Ever since, NASA policy has been to search for habitability—how comfortable an environment would be to Earth organisms—before actually looking for life. ...

posted on 11/23/2009

View more Science in the News

On the Bookshelf

An Interview with Frans de Waal

Greg Ross

The Emory University primatologist on nature's models for a just society

posted on 10/8/2009

Scientists' Nightstand: Clifford A. Pickover

Greg Ross

The prolific science writer reviews his recent reading and favorite authors

posted on 10/8/2009

An Interview with W. Brian Arthur

Greg Ross

The former Stanford economist considers how technology evolves

posted on 9/24/2009

View more On the Bookshelf

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